


Uzumaki Red

by kidotomy



Series: Uzumaki Red [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, background Naruto/sasuke, can be ignored lol, minor team taka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-08 21:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18903328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kidotomy/pseuds/kidotomy
Summary: Karin helps her sort-of-cousin dye his hair.





	Uzumaki Red

**Author's Note:**

> Briefly implied SNS. I haven't read canon in years, so forgive any mistakes.

It took awhile for them to be dismissed from the hospital, and nothing short of the war hero's insistence saved Sasuke from the gallows. Kakashi made that much clear. Naruto would die for him, and Naruto was invaluable to Konoha, and to the world, so Sasuke lives. The fact Konoha was letting Sasuke leave soon, certainly had more to do with the fact nobody quite wanted him there. Sasuke couldn't blame them.

Naruto slipping out of the village, had a lot more to do with nobody really being in the position to deny him.

It was only a week now until the planned start of their indefinite journey. Sasuke had a lot to atone for, despised Konoha, and really had nowhere to go. Naruto was just happy to be allowed at his side, and wrote it down as a way to better understand the different kinds of people he'd need to acknowledge as a potential Hokage. The prospect of lifting the suffering of innocent people wracked by war sounded a lot better than his participation in said war.

Sasuke's former teammates—Team Taka that is—were by contrast _not_ convicted criminals in Konoha, and were freely visiting to keep an eye on Sasuke before he departed, as well as lending to certain reparations.

Naruto had been sort of honored when Sasuke had quietly invited him to properly meet the surrogate team he'd formed in the time he was way. Sort of honored, and mostly apprehensive. Team Taka put an uneasy feeling in his gut, not in the _I don't trust you_ way, but the _Sasuke trusted you instead_ way. It was childish.

But he'd fit right in anyway, like he had a way of doing with anyone. Sasuke seemed pleased at least, and that was enough.

Before they could split, Karin had dragged Sasuke, Suigetsu and Jugo into a hug, that the former missing-nin begrudgingly accepted, and _maybe_ , to himself, appreciated just a bit.

"Ah—Karin, I have a favor to ask before we leave."

She looked at Naruto curiously, as did the rest of Taka. Suigetsu cackled, arm still slung around Sasuke and dragged him and Jugo a bit away.

Karin scrutinized him for a moment longer before conceding, "What is it?"

He didn't dance around it, only blurting out "I want to dye my hair." Along with a creeping blush, he kept going before she could answer. "Red I mean, like—" an _Uzumaki_ "my mom."

She let a simple hmm escape, "Why not ask your little pink teammate?"

And Naruto had thought of that, and really he could probably do it well enough on his own _maybe_ , but, and even if it was stupid, the kinship hanging in front of him was tempting. Too tempting.

"Uzumaki's, right?" He grinned, skirting the more emotional tangent. His nervous tell, rubbing the back of his head gave him away though as he tacked on, "You don't have to though."

Karin considered it, frowning as she pushed up her glasses, which was an absent minded habit more than a necessity. She looked back at Sasuke still being ribbed by Suigetsu, and seemed to make up her mind.

"Sure, Naruto-kun."

Her smile was only a _bit_ predatory.

 

* * *

 

They were only going to be in town for another few days, and there was no reason to wait. Karin left it to Naruto to buy the supplies (he should be able to do _that_ much) and fulfilled her part by showing up at his apartment the next night.

He answered the door with the same amount of vigor Karin had come to expect in their short acquaintanceship, which was somehow more than what she'd expected from what little Sasuke had said of him before.

She analyzed the scrappy apartment like she would an unfamiliar battlefield, taking extra note of the faded photograph of a woman with long red hair, centered around numerous others.

She picked up one in particular, grinning devilishly. "This is Sasuke-kun, right? He's so cute!"

Naruto peeked over at the photo she was holding though he knew which one it was by frame alone. "Ahh… yeah, that was right after we became genin." The photo came with a lot of warring memories, but most of all it was just weird to realize how much older they all were now. They looked like _babies_ in that photo.

While Karin held onto the photo like she was considering taking it, Naruto held up a plastic bag that had been sitting on the table.

"The store-lady said this is all I needed…" He rummaged around the bag, setting out the bright red dye, a small bottle, throw away gloves and an odd shaped bowl. "We can get takeout too, or something. My treat." He smiled, still buzzing with nervous energy.

It felt weird to be around Karin, not just because of whatever fringe familial feelings he couldn't help, but also because Sasuke having friends was still weird—and Naruto definitely wasn't going to admit kind of jealousy inducing. He knew it wasn't _fair_ but looking at any of team Taka…

Karin whistled, bringing the boy out of his reverie. "Let's get down to business then." She grinned, gingerly setting the photo back and gathering the items up in her hand, lightly kicking Naruto towards the bathroom.

"Sit down," She ordered, to which he easily complied. She popped open the box of dye, sliding out the tube of red pigment and discarded the instructions without a thought, which Naruto eyed warily. the redhead side eyed him, and smirked.

"Down worry, blondie."

She pulled the plastic gloves on, and set to mixing the developer and pigment. "Got a towel you don't care to dirty?"

Naruto shrugged, which looked a bit lopsided with his missing arm, like the movement had his weight swaying to the right with the unbalance. He kicked a towel up off the floor and grabbed it. Karin wrapped it around his shoulders just in case, though there wasn't much to worry about with his short hair. Better safe than sorry.

"You know we aren't related, right?"

He startled at that, mouth flapping. "Um."

Eloquent.

Karin laughed, and Naruto didn't feel in on the joke.

"I mean, we're not family, and I really don't care about clan ties." Unaffected, she used the little plastic brush to start coating Naruto's thick hair.

Naruto honest to God pouted, and looked like he would be sulking with his arms crossed if he could.

"You didn't have to say yes," He muttered feeling more awkward by the second. "I _could_ have asked Sakura."

"I wanted to talk to you though." She smiled, pausing to look at his face. "Just not because I look like your mom or something." She snorted.

"Sure…" He looked away. His nose scrunched at the acidic smell in the room wafting off the hair dye.

Karin might have cared that Naruto was an Uzumaki years ago. Maybe if she'd met him instead of Sasuke during the chunin exams she'd have thought about clinging to a trace of family she didn't know existed.

When Sasuke dropped that Naruto was Naruto Uzumaki, she'd briefly thought there was a reason she'd been drawn to him after all. Now she wasn't so sure.

"You like Sasuke-kun, right?"

Naruto wasn't dumb enough not to know what she meant. His blush deepened.

"Yeah." He admitted that freely, it wasn't exactly a secret.

Things has been weird, and maybe a little uncertain since their last battle at the Valley of The End. Naruto didn't know where certain boundaries lay, and how much he could push.

"I might be the only one around who'd give you the shovel talk for him, even if it's a little pointless." _Naruto_ snorted at that. Definitely.

"But I _will_ , anyway. I don't care how stupid overpowered you idiots are. I'd still kill you."

Naruto shivered—man she looked way too pleasant about that. He could imagine her glasses glinting super evil-y and felt the urge to shuffle uncomfortably, but didn't want to disturb Karin's work.

"If after all this, I fucked things up worse… he wilted a bit." Maa, I'd _let_ you."

"Good." She smiled, pulling away from Naruto now, setting the brush in the bowl with leftover dye and gingerly pulled off the red covered gloves. "Shouldn't take long to set. Feed me, fox boy!"

She backed into the kitchen with exuberance and very much like she was in her own home. That is to say, very comfortable with rummaging around his kitchen. An almost-empty fridge and cabinets full of ramen weren't so hopeful, causing her to sigh and collapse on the run-down couch.

"I see why you offered take out, Cuz." She glared at him over the couch. Naruto fought the urge to touch his hair. Cuz.

Hadn't she just admonished him about how not-family they were? He couldn't help the smiled that fought its way onto his face anyway.

"Yeah, yeah I don't need another lecture." He rolled his eyes and flicked the stove on and filled a pot with water. At least this sort of thing was easy one-handed. "I have leftover pizza, or I can run out to get something after this," he pointed at his hair, "is done." He looked at her now, smiling wickedly. "Or you can savor some _Uzumaki_ ramen."

She stuck her tongue out. "Don't get cocky about your cup ramen, dork." She waved a hand, "Make me some."

He considered that a win.

 

* * *

 

Anything was possible over ramen, and Naruto was pleased with the amicable tone they settled into. He thought…

It would be nice, if Sasuke's important people could become his important people too.

Even if she said they _weren't_ family, Karin made him wonder what it would be like to have one anyway. Like a proper clan, not that he had too much experience with those either. He'd only been to the Uchiha compound twice, once before Sasuke left and once after. The first time Sasuke had invited him, which at the time felt like the greatest gift he'd ever gotten.

The second time he felt like an intruder, and wished Sasuke would show up himself to chase him off.

But he had been in the Nara compound a handful of times, and that's what Karin made him reminisce about. What it would be like to be able to walk down the street, and know everyone around you was family and feel you were always safe. It _sounded_ nice.

After a thorough shower, and a lot of red running water that looked more like he'd just returned from a mission than it looked like he was messing with his hair, Naruto found himself looking in the mirror, fiddling with his wet and now very-red hair.

He wondered if he looked more like his mom. He couldn't tell.

He felt more like her though, even if that didn't quite make sense.

Karin had ruffled his hair and fist-bumped him on her way out, later that night with the promise Naruto would treat her to lunch before he left.


End file.
